ALTON — Excited kids and nostalgic grownups formed a line throughout Sherry’s Snacks by noon on a recent weekday, typical for the new sweets boutique that’s a modern take on an old-fashioned soda fountain.

Customers filled Jelly Belly bags from the colorful, branded display and selected their favorite childhood treats at the new Upper Alton candy store, which specializes in ice cream, soda-fountain floats and loose vintage and bulk candy.

Sherry’s Snacks immerses customers as soon as they walk in the door with music, such as Harry Belafonte’s “Day-O” and The Four Seasons’ “Sherry,” overhead in a crisp air-conditioned, colorfully-painted interior that sports a black-and-white-tiled floor.

Owner Kyle Hulker, who named the shop at 2500 College Ave. for his mother, opened Sherry’s Snacks for numerous reasons.

“The corner spot came available and I thought it would make the coolest candy shop in the world,” said Hulker, who also owns Alton Tattoo Co., at 2514 College Ave., the opposite end of the candy store’s block; he opened it less than two years ago and already won The Telegraph’s “Best of the Best 2016” tattoo shop title.

“I hear older people talking about cool places for floats, penny candy; they remember the temperature, the songs they heard, 60 years later,” Hulker said. “You’re not going to remember that going to Walgreens or CVS to get Gobstoppers.”

For Hulker, of Granite City, who grew up in Alton until he was 9 years old around Fernwood Avenue and Milton Road and returned at 17, recalled a special place with a memory of his own.

“It was called ‘Curly Cone,’” he noted. “It was the kind of thing where my mom could give me fifty cents and I could go get something with my friends. It was just a fun experience, something I’ll never forget.”

Thus, Hulker followed his entrepreneurial spirit and researched old-fashioned candy shops and used online resources for start-up information.

“I’m not rich. Making ideas real, I think that’s what I’m good at,” he said. “I just took what I thought and wanted a cool, neat-looking place that gives you that feeling and made sure it had what I like.”

Among his research he found out Jelly Belly’s top 10 selling flavors and made sure to carry those, as well as customers’ and his personal candy favorites. Hulker recounted many of Sherry’s Sweets Facebook posts from customers stating that its gummy bears are the “best gummy bears in the world”; Hulker describes them as the best he’s ever had in his life.

“This is different,” he said about the salt-water taffy. “The cotton candy (flavor) is amazing, that’s my favorite. I didn’t really eat it before. It’s not that we have things you’ve never seen, we’re not trying to reinvent the wheel, it’s just the best of the best.”

“Every day people come in and tell us we should get this, or we should get that, and we write down a lot of requests to put it on the menu,” said Hulker, whose wife, Indira, “runs the show and does everything” at Sherry’s Snacks, while Kyle creates body art at his tattoo shop. “We try to do something different, like with our ice cream floats. We have an Alton Red Bird that’s vanilla ice cream and Big Red soda.”

Witches’ Brew is a Harry Potter-inspired butterbeer float made with ice cream; another popular combination is strawberry ice cream and Sprite.

“We’ll mix about anything you want if we have it,” Kyle Hulker said.

The shop carries both bottled and fountain soda; and hand-scooped ice cream in a cone or cup.

He described the chili cheese nachos as “insanely good” and will add other savory items such as pretzels with cheese.

“It’s fun and fast, but well done,” he said of the non-sweets menu choices.

Sherry’s Snacks’ loose candy’s cost per pound is $8.99 versus $13.96 at the majority of major metropolitan regions’ bulk candy retailers, which Hulker noticed during his travels, he said.

“I want to keep it affordable, so even people without a ton of money can come in and get stuff,” he explained.

Future plans include catering candy for weddings, parties and special events.